This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Bangladeshi superstar enjoys 'normal' life in Ontario

Babita can't walk a street in Dhaka without drawing a crowd. In Ontario, she's staying in a student house with her son while cooking his meals

Bangladeshi movie star Babita is in Canada to attend her son Anik's convocation at the University of Waterloo, where he graduated in engineeering. The event takes place Saturday. (Bernard Weil / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

A student house in Waterloo, Ont., is a far cry from Bangladeshi superstar “Babita” Akhtar’s usual digs.

In the South Asian country, Farida Akhtar, better known by her screen name Babita, lives in a luxurious home in Gulshan, an exclusive neighbourhood in the capital, Dhaka, where she’s surrounded by staff attending to her every need. When she goes out, the actress is swarmed by doting fans.

Here, she’s cooking meals and living in a rented room at the student house her son, 24-year-old Anik Islam, calls home.

Babita travelled to Canada to attend her son’s convocation this Saturday. He’s graduating with distinction from the
University of Waterloo
’s electrical engineering program.

The trip is a rare chance for the single mother and her only son to taste a “normal” life.

Article Continued Below

“She’s kind of the representative celebrity for Bangladesh. She’s basically what put our country on the map in terms of the entertainment industry,” said Islam. “Practically everyone on the street knows her, even if she has her big shades on and she’s trying to keep a low profile, even then they recognize her.

“When she’s here it’s better for the both of us because we get to just be normal people, go wherever and not have people come up and take away our time.”

Even though her life in Dhaka is luxurious Babita said — with Islam translating — that she often feels like a prisoner in her own home. When she leaves, it’s to be driven to a film studio or engagement and then home again.

“In Canada it’s different, because (I) have to do everything myself, but it’s kind of liberating because (I) can pretty much do anything (I) want.”

The pair spent last weekend in Toronto, riding the TTC and checking out the Royal Ontario Museum. It’s Babita’s fifth trip to visit Islam, who came to Canada in 2008 to begin his studies after finding Waterloo following a Google search for “best university in Canada.”

Each time she visits, he rents an extra room in whatever student house he’s living in and their time together is decidedly different than his upbringing in Dhaka.

“If she’s here, she’s acting as a mother, she’s cooking food for me. But when she goes back, she’s again the actress, standing in front of the camera like she never left in the first place,” he said.

Babita shot to fame in Bangladesh in the 1970s and 1980s, winning numerous awards both from “Dhallywood” — a hybrid of Dhaka and Hollywood — and internationally. She had a starring role in Oscar-winning Indian director
Satyajit Ray’s
Distant Thunder
, a 1973 film about the Bengal famine that killed an estimated three million people. She’s appeared in more than 200 films.

“(What’s) more important at this stage is what (I) can give back to the community as an actress,” said Babita, who counts Hepburn as one of her heroes. “(I) want to do something similar.”

She was a staunch supporter of the
Acid Survivors Foundation
, a group that fights gender inequality and the practice of throwing acid in the face of a victim — usually female — for reasons such as spurning a man’s sexual advances or rejecting a marriage proposal. She’s also a goodwill ambassador for
Distressed Children and Infants International
, a U.S.-registered NGO working for children in Bangladesh.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com